Electronically stored information objects (e.g., files, images, videos, etc.) are often associated in collections or units so as to perform a certain function. For example, three-dimensional (3D) graphics are rendered using a collection of multiple files, such as model files (e.g., *.obj files), materials files (e.g., *.mtl files), texture files (e.g., *.jpg files), and/or other files. As another example, a website can host viewing or rendering files (e.g., *.html files), style files (e.g., *.css files), script files (e.g., *.js files), image files (e.g., *.jpg or *.png files), and/or other files. As yet another example, a digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) package might comprise hundreds or thousands of image files. The underlying content and dependencies of such amalgamations or units of content can be changed dynamically. Specifically, a texture file referenced by a 3D model file or an MRI scan might be updated, or the model file or DICOM metadata might be modified to reference a new texture file or view. Further, multiple collaborators (e.g., graphics artists, web developers, physicians, etc.) may be associated with the foregoing units of content for development, review, and/or other purposes. In such cases, a cloud-based content management service or platform might be used to facilitate the collaboration.
Unfortunately, legacy techniques for sharing units of cloud-based content present limitations at least as pertaining to efficiently managing access in the presence of dynamically changing aspects of such units. Specifically, some approaches might facilitate secure access to a fixed set of folders comprising a certain set of cloud-based content. However, such approaches restrict the collaborators to working within the boundaries of the shared folders. This can present limitations pertaining to referencing content outside the shared folder boundaries, referencing content within the shared folders by other units of content (e.g., other model files or material files), and/or other activities.
Such limitations introduce severe side-effects such as a need for multiple copies of certain content, or a need for multiple access tokens. Worse, legacy approaches have the potential to permit unauthorized access to content and/or have the potential to severely increase demands on users to manually perform content management operations. The various legacy techniques introduce still other operations and/or factors that reduce the efficiency of sharing or collaboration using a cloud-based service or platform. A technical solution is therefore needed.
What is needed is a technique or techniques to improve over legacy techniques and/or over other considered approaches. Some of the approaches described in this background section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.